When my daughter Rachel gave birth to her first child in 2001 about six weeks prior to my 50th birthday, a friend in Germany said, "You are a young grandpa." Well, actually I am a young "Opa", the German nickname for grandfather.

Monica and I are "Oma" and "Opa" for our two grandchildren. Our grandson Sean is now four years old, and his younger brother Adrian just turned one year old in March (both of them have their birthday in March). Adrian started walking about four weeks ago, so brother Sean better watch out and put all of his toys away a little higher. But that won't last long at the rate Adrian is growing. He weighed over 10 pounds when he was born and he hasn't stopped since! So he may wind up being bigger than his older brother.

Our daughter Rachel and her husband Eric live in the Dallas, Texas area. Our son Ted does, too, so that makes it convenient for us. We just have the drive over from Mobile when we visit – about a ten hour drive with stops.

Even though I live in Germany, I get to see our grandkids several times a year. That isn't as much as others, but a lot more than some people I know, even those who live in the same country like the United States. They sure are a joy and I am amazed at how well Rachel and Eric do with their children. They seem so relaxed as young parents, which I wasn't all the time for various reasons – but that is another story.

When son-in-law Eric, grandson Sean and I went to an indoor football game today in Dallas, Sean talked about the "power ranger" football guys down on the shortened field. I'm not up on that kind of thing, so I'll take his word for it. Looked like a football game to me, but his four year old perspective is interesting. Wonder what he will think when we go to a baseball game later this week!